1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement in an storage locking apparatus such as, for example, glove box openably and closably attached to an instrument panel of an automobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
A locking apparatus of this kind of a prior art is constructed by a constitution in which whereas a central portion of a glove box door is integrally formed with a containing portion in a recessed shape, a locking member engaging with and disengaging from a striker provided on a side of an instrument panel is liftably supported at inside of the containing portion in the recessed shape and the locking member is elastically urged to an upper side by urging spring pressure, an operating handle is pivotably supported axially by two side walls of the containing portion in the recessed shape and a front end side of the operating handle is continuously provided with an engaging arm for engaging with an engaging portion of the locking member (refer to JP-A-2000-272429).
Further, in actual use thereof, when the glove box is disposed at a closed position, the locking member is moved up by the urging spring pressure and a front end portion of the locking member is engaged with the striker and therefore, thereby, the glove box is locked to the closed position, on the contrary, in the case of unlocking the glove box, when the operating handle is operated to pivot from a lower side to an upper side by putting the finger into a large operating space partitioned at a lower portion of the containing portion, at this occasion, the engaging arm of the operating handle is engaged with the engaging portion of the locking member to move down the locking member against the urging spring pressure and therefore, thereby, a state of engaging the locking member and the striker is released and the glove box is permitted to move in an opening direction.
Therefore, although the locking apparatus of the prior art achieves at least an advantage of capable of simply locking and unlocking the glove box, the operating space of putting the finger between the operating handle and the glove door needs to partition in view of a relationship of pivoting the operating handle from the lower side to the upper side and therefore, the glove door is integrally formed with the containing portion in the recessed shape, however, since the containing portion is significantly projected to an inner side of the glove box, there is a concern of constituting a hindrance in putting small articles into and from the glove box, or restricting an effective space of the glove box.